DC, October 2005

Washington Travel Blog

The first place Trinity and I went when we got our very own travel benefits was Washington DC, in October 2005. I do have pictures but they are on my old PC, which is fully functional, except it crashes every time I try to upload photos on this site. That disappoints me, because even three years later they are still some of my favorite photos. The following is cut and pasted from another travel blog I wrote at the time:

We just got back from Washington DC which is not the most exciting city in the world by any means but it was an adventure nonetheless. So it was the first time that we ever traveled "alone" and I was a little nervous about it, not in a terrifying way of course but in like, will I be able to make my way through airport security with a four year old, two bags, three jackets and my Starbucks coffee without looking like some harried mom, will I be able to find my way through a brand new city with nothing but a subway map, etc. Anyway, it was simple and I feel very satisfied and proud of myself, as idiotic as that sounds.Day one, we had to sit in the back of the plane with half a window, and the first thing I was greeted with was a phone call from Trinity's school asking why she wasn't in school which greatly annoyed me because I informed both the office and the teacher of her absence and the reason why over a week in advance. I think I snapped when I said it to her but that phone call made me feel like I was some ass who doesn't know what's going on with her kid. I plan on going to the office on Monday and asking why it wasn't recorded when it was stated to them TWICE.

Anyway...we quickly checked into our hotel in Crystal City and headed back out into the city to explore, and, since I didn't want to get ahead of myself and jinx my chances of even getting on the flight, I didn't plan much more than a reservation at the Marriott, which I was assured I could cancel without getting charged before 6 pm. So we took the subway to Smithsonian and walked around. I used to enjoy American History in school, but I am such a retarded idiot I couldn't identify a single monument aside from the Capitol. We went to this McDonald's/food stand where I got into a argument with the worker who said she didn't have enough change for a ten dollar bill. Even though I did have a smaller bill than a ten, I pretended that I didn't in hopes that she'd let me take my food for free, but instead she grumbled and pouted about how she had to use her own money for her transit card to give me change for my Quarter Pounders. So I didn't correct her when her poor math skills caused her to give me one dollar too much. We marched our way over to the Washington Monument, which was like the North Star of the city and soon became my beacon of light that I could follow to find my way to or from anything else in the city. We watched the sunset from there and then made it back to our hotel to go swimming and grabbed a city map from the lobby and I made a mental map of places to go the next day. We ate an okay meal in the restaurant in the hotel, rather than ordering room service from the identical menu, because as everyone knows I am cheap and was still upset about the fact that earlier in the day, I forgot to get change, and had to tip the shuttle driver $5! We went back to our room and got in our pajamas, Trinity in her PowerPuff Girls, me in my SpongeBob Snoozypants, and ordered Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Trinity fell asleep and I tried to do exactly that until roughly 4:30 a.m, so I was surprised to be alive much less wide awake at 9:00.

The next day we went to Arlington Cemetery in the rain. How cliche is that??! I felt like I was in a movie. I wanted to put a rock on someone's grave but instead we just walked up the hill to President Kennedy's grave and back down again. At least I can say I was there, but we had roughly 12 hours to hang out in the city and neither of us wanted to spend it in the nation's largest cemetery. I said to Trinity, "Well, that was interesting." and she said "Yeah, but it wasn't very fun." We got back on the train and went to McPherson Square which I would pronounce mcfearson but people there pronounced mcfurson and was the White House stop, where we almost tripped over like 3 homeless people at the top of escalator. I know you always hear stories about how the White House is surrounded by homeless people but somehow I did not expect them to be living in a tent on the sidewalk 30 feet from the President's front door. I didn't know whether to feel amused or horrifed. Also, we saw a black squirrel on the White House lawn. Then we went back to the Smithsonian to go to the Museum of Natural History, because as everyone knows, Trinity and I are all about museums. On the way there we stopped briefly at the White House Visitor's Center, which was boring and small but worth it because we found a penny on the floor and because Trinity signed her name in the guestbook and when I asked her what comments she would like to say about about it, she said "That I hate Bush." Thankfully no one heard her and we were not arrested or taken away. Off to the museum it was and we both enjoyed it and we stayed until closing time, and then for a 3D Imax movie called Into the Deep, during which I almost fell asleep. It was late and we were both tired, but we still went swimming for an hour after returning to our hotel before retreating to our room, then went back downstairs to the business center to check in for our flight, and then to buy snacks in the hotel gift shop, which strangely enough had prices lower than most gas stations and grocery stores I know. We went back upstairs and ordered War of the Worlds which was a huge waste of money because we both fell asleep and will now have to spend more money on to order again since I need to know how it ends now, even though what I did see of it I was not very impressed by or interested in. We spent most of today in the airport because our flight was delayed and since it took me at least an hour to get through security I was not about to go back out and wander around the airport just to say I did. We ate bagels from Starbucks, colored pictures in our Sesame Street Halloween coloring book and watched Lemony Snicket on the trusty portable DVD player which has pretty much served no purpose in my life up until this afternoon. In the end, we visited a new museum, saw a bunch of places that are in movies and shows and now when we watch them we can say "We were there! We saw that!", added two new states to our "where I've been" maps and got pictures. I'd say it was well worth it.